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I know the word "marron" and the expression "être marron", but none of the senses matches with the apparent meaning of the phrase "C'est assez marron !". I encountered this phrase recently in slang (argot) related to urban youth culture (cf. this inverview, one of several occurences). It was used similar to the "C'est bizarre !", "C'est assez bizarre !" or "C'est trop bizarre !", which I hear quite frequently among young people.

What exactly is meant with this expression? Where does it come from? Is it a regional phenomenon, maybe related to Algerian French? Is it a more recent fashion? What do people think of someone who uses it?

The reason why I ask is simple: I cannot discern what exactly is "marron" about the story the singer tells in the interview. (Not only the story I linked, but she uses it rather arbitrary maybe five times in the same video.)

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    I misheard it too when I first heard it on the streets of Paris (where you'll hear it often... along with the expression « dégueulasse ! » ).
    – Luke Sawczak ♦
    Aug 16, 2018 at 12:44
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    As you are asking about Algerian French; people from Maghreb have sometime a hard time differentiating "an" and "on" sounds when speaking French. Resulting, for instance, in saying "maisan" instead of "maison", or "marron" instead of "marrant".
    – Pierre
    Aug 16, 2018 at 12:51
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    @Pierre "ui" too, my "cuisine" sounds as "couisine" :D
    – E.Abdel
    Aug 16, 2018 at 13:01
  • I hear ''marrant'', not marron, and I'm not from Maghreb, the girl in the interview has a good accent, no problem.
    – Quidam
    Oct 19, 2018 at 16:09
  • @E.Abdel > Seems the same faulty pronunciation is also a difference between belgians and french ... Already had quite often the remark on "Aujourd'hui", "puissant" or even "juin"
    – Laurent S.
    Apr 2, 2019 at 11:17

2 Answers 2

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I think that is a mistake, on dit "c'est assez marrant", "marrant" is an adjective which means as you say, "bizarre", "drôle"..., it is an equivalent of "it's funny"

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    +1. C'est bien marrANT qu'il faut entendre dans cette interview.
    – MC68020
    Aug 16, 2018 at 12:34
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    Thanks for the quick responses and comments. "Marrant" makes sense to me. Like "marrer" which I know (frequently discussed on this site: french.stackexchange.com/questions/27649/…).
    – Christoph Mark
    Aug 16, 2018 at 13:05
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    Important to note: the mistake here is on the part of the listener, the sound she pronounces is perfectly in line with /ɑ̃/ as said by younger speakers in the North of the European francophone area
    – Eau qui dort
    Aug 16, 2018 at 14:09
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You misheard. In the interview she says « c’est assez marrant ». It means « it’s funny ».

She does not says « c’est assez marron » which indeed has absolutely no sense in French.

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  • Bienvenue sur French Language SE, Alexy. Does this bring new information from the other answer? Please take a moment to tour the site and see the help center.
    – livresque
    Aug 12, 2022 at 22:31

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